Indiana native Ryan Newman won the Brickyard 400 today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was Newman's first win this year and moves him that much closer to making the Chase in upcoming weeks. Newman's team owner, Tony Stewart, finished fourth to give Stewart-Haas a nice performance for the day.
Also having a good performance day was Hendrick Motorsports as they fielded 6 cars in the top 10 finishers, if you count that Stewart and Newman are running Hendrick equipment. That's effin' dominant! Never like to exalt over someone's misfortune, but I wasn't disappointed when Jimmie Johnson's pit crew botched his final pit stop just as he was driving away towards another laugher of a victory. Apparently that's the only way to stop the Johnson/Knaus juggernaut these days.
Sort of a bittersweet thing for Newman as he's out of a ride for next year. His good friend and employer, Stewart, is dumping him to bring Stewart's other good friend, Kevin Harvick, and his Budweiser sponsor money on board.
It's part of the weirdness of NASCAR that athletes can know halfway through a year that they're out of work next year and still expected to perform at full throttle, so to speak. Props to Newman for doing just that. In fact, he's been the most consistent performer at SHR this year -- quietly working up to or into the top ten race after race.
I had hopes that Stewart would field a four car team next season when I first heard Harvick was coming over. In fact, I seem to remember reading various news accounts saying that was exactly what was going to occur. Guess not. Here's hoping someone gives Ryan a seat next season. I'm looking at you, former employer Roger Penske.
btw -- guess five people got one month's mortgage payment paid today by Quicken Loans promotion. Wonder how overloaded their server will be next week with people signing up? heh
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